


I Won't Be a Gift to Her

by fictorium



Category: Good Wife (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-16
Updated: 2013-06-16
Packaged: 2017-12-15 04:26:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/845298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fictorium/pseuds/fictorium
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Will is like me: he’ll always disappoint you”<br/>Celeste - Episode 3x05</p><p>A friendly drink between women who aren't exactly friends, no matter how much they have in common; Alicia's getting tired of assumptions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I Won't Be a Gift to Her

**Author's Note:**

> _“You’d be surprised,” Celeste teases. “But a good person wouldn’t, say, have sex with someone else while they’re sleeping with Will. That wouldn’t be... vanilla.”_
> 
> _Alicia sighs, and thinks fondly of a time when people only said ‘vanilla’ near her when they were asking for more ice-cream. This has become her scarlet letter--V for vanilla--because if your husband bangs prostitutes it’s at least partly your fault for not keeping him satisfied in bed, right?_

Alicia is putting the finishing touches to Caitlin’s ‘welcome pack’ when there’s a knock on her open office door. It’s late enough that most of the floor has already cleared out, so she looks up expecting Will. She gets Celeste instead (which is happening just a little too often lately).

  
“So, did he?” Celeste asks, not waiting for an invitation to come in and sit.  
  
  
“Did he...what?” Alicia plays dumb for a moment, like Celeste’s words haven’t been ringing in her ears for the past two days.  
  
  
“Disappoint you,” Celeste provides, affecting a sudden fascination with her own fingertips.  
  
  
“Oh. No, he didn’t. I thought that maybe he...but he explained it. Not disappointing,” Alicia forces the smile onto her face, because she isn’t entirely sure she believes that yet herself. She sees the honor of a debt repaid, especially when Will incurred that debt for her in the first place. It’s just that he’s a named partner, and he could have given her a job regardless, if he’d really wanted to help her out two years ago.  
  
  
“You might want to tell everything north of your nose that,” Celeste says, fixing Alicia with one of her smirking little glares. “Because your eyes sure as hell don’t believe you.”  
  
  
“Did you want something?” Alicia sighs, already exasperated.  
  
  
“Another drink,” Celeste says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world.  
  
  
And she’ll never know quite what possesses her, but Alicia says yes.  
  
  
*  
  
  
The bar is different this time, and Alicia doesn’t dwell on the fact that Celeste just got in from Baltimore, essentially, and already knows all the cool places to drink better than Alicia who’s been in Chicago for seventeen years.  
  
  
“No tequila tonight?” Celeste pouts a little as she asks, like she’s offended that Alicia’s going to try and keep her wits about her.  
  
  
“There’s nothing wrong with wine,” Alicia raises her glass in a mock toast, and Celeste shrugs and takes her shot with practiced ease.   
  
  
*  
  
  
A bottle of merlot later, and Alicia is a little freer with her laughs. Celeste was right, before--they really could be friends. (And if this makes Alicia miss Kalinda, well, fuck that.) Celeste finishes regaling Alicia with a story about her latest ex, and they dissolve into helpless laughter yet again.  
  
  
“You know,” Celeste adds, when she catches her breath. “I thought you’d be a real stuck-up bitch. That’s what it looked like--you know, at the press conferences.”  
  
  
“Thanks,” Alicia deadpans. “That is absolutely the first time I’ve heard that.”  
  
  
“Hey, no offense,” Celeste says, grinning lazily.  
  
  
“Why do I only ever hear those words when someone’s saying something offensive?” Alicia muses, before waving the bartender over. “Anyway, I should be getting home.”  
  
  
“The kids are waiting?” Celeste asks.  
  
  
“No, they’re with Peter,” Alicia offers readily.  
  
  
“Oh, so you’re heading home in the hope that Will has a late-night booty call in mind?”  
  
  
“No,” Alicia answers, a little too quickly. She knows she won’t see Will tonight--something about a dinner with some old friends that she didn’t bother to press him about. They’re doing fine, and she has no intention of making it anything more serious--it’s an affair to fit into the free time, not to create it.  
  
  
“Uh huh,” Celeste says, not believing her for a second. “Let’s have one more drink, okay?”  
  
  
“Fine,” Alicia agrees (she’s good at agreeing, at smoothing over). “But it can wait until I get back from the ladies room.”  
  
  
“Sure,” Celeste smiles, like she’s won something. Alicia likes that smile, and can’t help wishing her own came so freely.  
  
  
*  
  
  
She’s washing her hands a few minutes later when the door swings open to reveal Celeste. Unsurprisingly, there weren’t a lot of other women in this bar that Celeste chose--mostly stuffy suits who’ve already gone home with any women who were here hoping to snag a lawyer for at least a night. It means they’re the only two people by the sinks, and Alicia scrutinizes Celeste’s face for a clue as to why. Surely if Celeste came in for the same reason Alicia had, she could have gone straight to a cubicle instead of standing here staring Alicia down.  
  
  
“Did you need something?” Alicia asks (still too eager to please, to help).  
  
  
“I’ve been thinking about it,” Celeste says, stepping a little closer. “I get what Will sees in you--I really do--but it’s a shame he’s the only one who gets that side of you.”  
  
  
“Who says that he is?” Alicia doesn’t quite know what Celeste is getting at, but she has her suspicions. The stories that Celeste has been busting out to embarrass Will have been doing the rounds in office whispers, and Alicia has become adept at picking up on those.  
  
  
“Well, you wouldn’t show it to me, for example. Not a good person like you, right?” Celeste licks her lips, and it doesn’t even seem like a conscious action.  
  
  
“I told you before,” Alicia reminds her. “I’m not a good person. And besides, what does that have to do with who you sleep with?”  
  
  
“You’d be surprised,” Celeste teases. “But a good person wouldn’t, say, have sex with someone else while they’re sleeping with Will. That wouldn’t be... vanilla.”  
  
  
Alicia sighs, and thinks fondly of a time when people only said ‘vanilla’ near her when they were asking for more ice-cream. This has become her scarlet letter--V for vanilla--because if your husband bangs prostitutes it’s at least partly your fault for not keeping him satisfied in bed, right?  
  
  
There’s something about Celeste’s accusation that stings, though. And maybe it’s the wine, or the sheer frustration of the world judging her without any foundation in fact, but something in Alicia snaps. She is not putting up with this crap anymore.  
  
  
Celeste doesn’t get a chance to step any closer, because Alicia is the one who very quickly closes the gap between them; more than that, she keeps moving until Celeste is pressed back against the door she just came through.  
  
  
“Is this too vanilla?” Alicia mocks, her voice low and dangerous (it doesn’t even sound like her).  
  
  
“So far? Yeah,” Celeste can’t resist the dig. “Walking isn’t really that risqué.”  
  
  
So Alicia kisses her on that proud, cruel mouth that doesn’t shut up and doesn’t keep secrets. Their lips press together in a surprisingly soft caress of lipstick on bare skin, of heavy red wine meeting the sourness of lime. Alicia is unrelenting, not least because she finds herself enjoying the kiss. She’s been kissing Will and Peter for twenty years, and this feels as new as the first snowfall.  
  
  
“Huh,” Celeste breathes when the kiss finally ends. “Didn’t think you had it in you, Alicia.”  
  
  
Alicia doesn’t know whether to slap her, or just kiss her again, but Celeste makes the choice for her. Grabbing Alicia by the shoulders as their mouths meet again (and it’s hungry this time, it’s not just to prove a point) Celeste maneuvers Alicia round until her shoulderblades are the ones pressed against the heavy wooden door.  
  
  
And God, Celeste can kiss. This time she takes charge, invading Alicia’s mouth with careful strokes of her tongue that leave Alicia panting softly through her nose. She reaches instinctively for Celeste’s neck, for her pinned-up hair, and Alicia lets her fingers caress wherever they land. Celeste murmurs in appreciation, and then her thigh is pressing between Alicia’s, which kicks this whole thing into a gear that Alicia wasn’t quite expecting. What she was expecting even less was the sharp tug inside her that says _yes, you like this_ , and the fact that she’s already getting wet, despite her better judgment.  
  
  
“Are we really gonna do this?” Celeste asks, her face flushed. She hasn’t relaxed her grip on Alicia’s shoulders yet, convinced apparently that Alicia is going to bolt at any second.  
  
  
“Looks like it,” Alicia is the one to smirk, her lipstick kissed off and her head gently spinning. She wants to get laid, dammit, and wouldn’t it be nice to try that with someone who hasn’t known her for half her life? Celeste is not the call-you-in-the-morning type, that much is already obvious, and even it’s not like anyone will believe Celeste if she decides to tell tales. “Where are you staying?”  
  
  
“My hotel is three blocks from here,” Celeste replies. “That’s a long enough walk for you to change your mind, right?”  
  
  
“You’d think,” Alicia says, stealing another brief and bruising kiss, “that you’d have learned to stop second-guessing me by now. You’ve been wrong about me all week, Celeste.”  
  
  
“Maybe,” Celeste considers. “You want me to call Will? Is that what this is?”  
  
  
“What is wrong with you?” Alicia sighs. “I’ve already told you that I want you--just you--and can something for once just be about what I want?”  
  
  
“Yes ma’am,” Celeste pouts, giving a mock salute as she does. “Then let’s go.”  
  
“Finally,” Alicia says with an eye roll, but as she turns to leave Celeste smacks her playfully on the ass.  
  
  
“Sorry!” Celeste defends herself, off Alicia’s look back. “I’ll tone it down.”  
  
  
“That’s...disappointing,” Alicia teases, and she’s surprised by how sultry she sounds, her hand still resting on the unopened door. “I had no idea  _you_  were so vanilla.”  
  
  
“Wait, are you saying--” Celeste begins, but Alicia is really, really done with talking.  
  
  
“Yes. Maybe. Now shut up and take me somewhere-- _now_ \--where you can put your money where your mouth is.”  
  
  
“Damn,” Celeste says, trying not to laugh as they make their way back through the bar. “You’re just full of surprises.”  
  
  
Alicia smiles as they step out into the cool evening, and drops her head for just a moment.   
  
  
“You know what? I really am.”


End file.
